Orikoru
Tour Winner
Just imagine me setting that up and putting driving range balls off the mat and into the bit of gravel in front of you.
I played today and..(Rolling) -originally created by JohnnyDee
- Thread starter Imurg
- Start date
nickjdavis
Head Pro
Not just today...three rounds this week, and, after some indifferent form, I seem to be developing some sort of golfing game once more.
First up was a club Seniors comp on Tuesday...a bog standard Stableford comp which is part of a series of 8 where your best 5 scores count. I hit 11 out of 13 fairways and 11 greens in regulation but my putting was awful, taking 38 stabs to put the ball into the hole including three 3 putts. 2 double bogeys, one treble and just a solitary birdie contributed to an unspectacular gross 81 and 35 points. This gave me a 5th place finish out of 40 competitors and has moved me up to 23rd out of 56 in the overall comp....however I've only played in 2 of the 3 comps in the series as I was away on holiday for round 2....so hopefully I've still got room to catch up, especially when folks have got 5 scores on their record which would then only allow incremental improvments.
Yesterday saw 8 of us head to sunny Felixstowe Ferry for a Suffolk Union "Parks Trophy" match. The Parks is a 4BBB matchplay event for over 55's with an index of less than 12...it did used to also have a stipulation that two players in the team had to be over 65 but seemingly that has been dropped due to the decreasing numbers of aged golfers across the various clubs who would qualify on handicap basis. Scoring in the event is done by holes...all four matches play the entire 18 holes and the team with the most holes won....wins. This can result in a team losing three of the four matches in the traditional sense, but still winning, if their winning pair triumph by a large margin. It does however greatly reduce the chances of a tied match, though such things obviously do happen.
As a team we lost by 4 holes, our opening pair 4 down and then the remaining matches finishing 1up, 1down, all square.
My match was the anchor leg and my partner was the low guy, (off 6) and I received 5 strokes, whilst our opponents received 3 and 2. The match was a very hard fought affair. Of the 8 holes that were won, 5 were won with gross birdie including 3 in a row from the 2nd. Despite going a hole down early on we managed to drag ourselves into a 3 hole lead by the 10th but slowly our opponents got their game together and reeled us in with some superb putting and the guy off 2 hitting some magnificent 3 woods into wind as we turned for home over the final few holes. As a pair we shot 4 under gross on the front nine, but tailed off a bit hitting 3 bogies over the closing 5 holes. Our opponents played equally well as a pair and themselves were level par gross for the 18 holes.
My own round started poorly, hitting my opening tee shot out of bounds before missing a short putt for a half on the 2nd. Then I exploded into life by draining a 20 footer for birdie on 3 and followed it up with birdies on 4 and 5 (three of the four of us birdied the 5th!). By my reckoning and taking into account conceded or "meaningless" putts (none of which were of any great distance) my personal gross score would have been around 77/78 (par 72) with three of the dropped shots coming in the opening 2 holes. In a normal Stableford comp my PH off the whites at Felixstowe would be 11 so very pleased with my days golf.
Today saw me once more visit the seaside...this time 20 of us from our club took a jaunt down into Essex to play Frinton. Off a PH of 11 I managed a pleasing 39 points (including 2 blobs....proper bandit talk that!!!)...3 birdies, 7 pars, 4 bogies, 2 doubles and a treble....giving an 8 over par gross 79. Drove the ball well, putted well (including a proper linksy affair from around 10ft off the green) and generally just didnt find too much trouble. One of the blobs came at a hole where I found greenside bunker and, having played out of nice firm bunkers yesterday I failed to compensate for the deeper soft sand and failed to extract the ball at the first attempt. The other came as a result of some numpty leaving a rake in a fairway bunker across the line of play, close to the back edge, trapping the ball against the bunkers edge. I was annoyed at the idiots actions and made the wrong (aggressive) shot choice and then proceeded to hack my way up the remainder of the hole swearing profusely.
Still, two of my birdies were for 4 points and I was fortunate enough to bag me a grand total of 10 skins which paid for a good portion of my green fee and lunch!!!
Now going to have the weekend off!!!
First up was a club Seniors comp on Tuesday...a bog standard Stableford comp which is part of a series of 8 where your best 5 scores count. I hit 11 out of 13 fairways and 11 greens in regulation but my putting was awful, taking 38 stabs to put the ball into the hole including three 3 putts. 2 double bogeys, one treble and just a solitary birdie contributed to an unspectacular gross 81 and 35 points. This gave me a 5th place finish out of 40 competitors and has moved me up to 23rd out of 56 in the overall comp....however I've only played in 2 of the 3 comps in the series as I was away on holiday for round 2....so hopefully I've still got room to catch up, especially when folks have got 5 scores on their record which would then only allow incremental improvments.
Yesterday saw 8 of us head to sunny Felixstowe Ferry for a Suffolk Union "Parks Trophy" match. The Parks is a 4BBB matchplay event for over 55's with an index of less than 12...it did used to also have a stipulation that two players in the team had to be over 65 but seemingly that has been dropped due to the decreasing numbers of aged golfers across the various clubs who would qualify on handicap basis. Scoring in the event is done by holes...all four matches play the entire 18 holes and the team with the most holes won....wins. This can result in a team losing three of the four matches in the traditional sense, but still winning, if their winning pair triumph by a large margin. It does however greatly reduce the chances of a tied match, though such things obviously do happen.
As a team we lost by 4 holes, our opening pair 4 down and then the remaining matches finishing 1up, 1down, all square.
My match was the anchor leg and my partner was the low guy, (off 6) and I received 5 strokes, whilst our opponents received 3 and 2. The match was a very hard fought affair. Of the 8 holes that were won, 5 were won with gross birdie including 3 in a row from the 2nd. Despite going a hole down early on we managed to drag ourselves into a 3 hole lead by the 10th but slowly our opponents got their game together and reeled us in with some superb putting and the guy off 2 hitting some magnificent 3 woods into wind as we turned for home over the final few holes. As a pair we shot 4 under gross on the front nine, but tailed off a bit hitting 3 bogies over the closing 5 holes. Our opponents played equally well as a pair and themselves were level par gross for the 18 holes.
My own round started poorly, hitting my opening tee shot out of bounds before missing a short putt for a half on the 2nd. Then I exploded into life by draining a 20 footer for birdie on 3 and followed it up with birdies on 4 and 5 (three of the four of us birdied the 5th!). By my reckoning and taking into account conceded or "meaningless" putts (none of which were of any great distance) my personal gross score would have been around 77/78 (par 72) with three of the dropped shots coming in the opening 2 holes. In a normal Stableford comp my PH off the whites at Felixstowe would be 11 so very pleased with my days golf.
Today saw me once more visit the seaside...this time 20 of us from our club took a jaunt down into Essex to play Frinton. Off a PH of 11 I managed a pleasing 39 points (including 2 blobs....proper bandit talk that!!!)...3 birdies, 7 pars, 4 bogies, 2 doubles and a treble....giving an 8 over par gross 79. Drove the ball well, putted well (including a proper linksy affair from around 10ft off the green) and generally just didnt find too much trouble. One of the blobs came at a hole where I found greenside bunker and, having played out of nice firm bunkers yesterday I failed to compensate for the deeper soft sand and failed to extract the ball at the first attempt. The other came as a result of some numpty leaving a rake in a fairway bunker across the line of play, close to the back edge, trapping the ball against the bunkers edge. I was annoyed at the idiots actions and made the wrong (aggressive) shot choice and then proceeded to hack my way up the remainder of the hole swearing profusely.
Still, two of my birdies were for 4 points and I was fortunate enough to bag me a grand total of 10 skins which paid for a good portion of my green fee and lunch!!!
Now going to have the weekend off!!!
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hairball_89
Club Champion
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Agreed, a great way to spend a Friday morning and another thanks to @Hacky for hosting and arranging
Amusing antidotes from the day include, finding that i have a leftie putter in my borrowed clubs and the tale of the mythical pineapple trees
Thanks guys, really enjoyed it
Hacky
Member
Yes, a very enjoyable morning played in beautiful weather. Luckily @Slab discovered the lefty putter in the bag on the range beforehand (mind you it would have been even more comical were we to have reached the first green).Agreed, a great way to spend a Friday morning and another thanks to @Hacky for hosting and arranging
Amusing antidotes from the day include, finding that i have a leftie putter in my borrowed clubs and the tale of the mythical pineapple trees
Thanks guys, really enjoyed it
Some very decent play by slab, using some rather not so decent and unfamiliar Callaway Razr’s and a couple of good birdies by @hairball_89.
It was a pleasure to meet and host you both.
Burnsey
Well-known member
I played 9 holes yesterday (of 18) and had to retire with a back issue, so today was always going to be a challenge and it was.
Awful comp score.
Awful comp score.
clubchamp98
Journeyman Pro
Back injury is a nightmare for golfers.
I turned up this morning and my regular pp said, 'you aren't going to like this 
". I looked at him hard and then realised, 'it's off whites, isn't it?'. Deep sigh, Saturday is normally yellow tees, still 6,350, stableford, Sunday is whites, 6,800. Hot day, whites, strokeplay........I gave him my best Paddington glare.
Ah well, slow start, definitely improved. Gave away too many putts, that was frustrating. Tee to green was decent, I got my 3 wood going nicely which was a bonus. I really concentrated on getting my left shoulder under my chin on the backswing, definitely helped. Sounds obvious but it's the sort of thing that slips at times.
Considering the heat and the tees, I was very happy with my net +2 score.
". I looked at him hard and then realised, 'it's off whites, isn't it?'. Deep sigh, Saturday is normally yellow tees, still 6,350, stableford, Sunday is whites, 6,800. Hot day, whites, strokeplay........I gave him my best Paddington glare.Ah well, slow start, definitely improved. Gave away too many putts, that was frustrating. Tee to green was decent, I got my 3 wood going nicely which was a bonus. I really concentrated on getting my left shoulder under my chin on the backswing, definitely helped. Sounds obvious but it's the sort of thing that slips at times.
Considering the heat and the tees, I was very happy with my net +2 score.
clubchamp98
Journeyman Pro
I’m playing today at 3.30 but according to the weather forecast ( lightning,thunder) I might be home early.
Orikoru
Tour Winner
Another week, another pathetic bottlejob. Singles knockout match, playing unbelievably on the front nine, found myself 3 up after 8, and I've just gone birdie, par, par, par, birdie. Bottled it as usual. Back nine crap. Was still 2 up with two to play but doubled both of them and went to a play-off. Lost the third hole of that with another double on a par 3.
I'm not going to bother entering the solo knockouts anymore. That's 4 matches and 4 defeats. I just don't have the stones to actually finish it off. Utterly embarrassing.
I'm not going to bother entering the solo knockouts anymore. That's 4 matches and 4 defeats. I just don't have the stones to actually finish it off. Utterly embarrassing.
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Neilds
Assistant Pro
Played in my first par/bogey competition today. Didn’t really know what a good score for me, especially as I hadn’t played for 10 days and spent the week in London walking over 10 miles a day in the heat. Turns out it is the best sort of preparation for me - reached the turn in 42 shots (off 22!) and ended up +4 for the round. Did get to +6 but a few bad holes in the last 4 or 5 just pulled me back. Not all scores are in but should be top 10 and may sneak a prize in my division. Another cut coming up 
rudebhoy
Q-School Graduate
Stableford today. Driving has got progressively worse as this week has gone on. I tend to make a mental tally of good ones vs bad after a game. The score today was 6 good, 7 bad. The strongest part of my game is now the weakest, no idea how that happened, but will deffo be booking a lesson for next week.
Quite how I managed 35 points is a bit of a mystery.
Quite how I managed 35 points is a bit of a mystery.
Burnsey
Well-known member
Thankfully I think it's just a 'twinge', although I've had it a couple of times this year already, it tends to hang around a week or so and only affects the right side.
Today I was all arms, mindful of twisting and it just didn't work.
I've two comps next week, so hope it clears up...
Springveldt
Well-known member
Black tee medal today in surprise, surprise a 30mph wind. Felt like I drove the ball poorly, didn't hit my approaches that well but putted lights out for me. The putting saved the round, ended up with a gross 78 for a net 71 but since the Black tees are rated at 73.6 that means it's a 3.7 differential which will see a slight increase as I had a 3.0 dropping off.
Overall I'm still loving the new putter effect. Going through my Shot Scope and I holed 91 feet of putts which is my 3rd best since I've been tracking my stats (over 4 seasons now) so I'm delighted. The heavier overall weight of the putter is definitely making a difference for me, it feels much harder to have the backswing to go all over the place which happens with lighter putters. I'm hitting everything on my chosen line, I could have holed more putts today if not for the overnight rain and the greens running a little slower, I left 3 putts short in the jaws. Let's see how long the confidence lasts.
My mate shot a gross 67 which was nuts in the wind. Bogey free, think his longest par putt all day was 2 foot and he hit 16/18 greens and the two he missed he was on the fringe and putting. He made golf look easy today and I'd expect a decent cut since his differential is -5.6.
Overall I'm still loving the new putter effect. Going through my Shot Scope and I holed 91 feet of putts which is my 3rd best since I've been tracking my stats (over 4 seasons now) so I'm delighted. The heavier overall weight of the putter is definitely making a difference for me, it feels much harder to have the backswing to go all over the place which happens with lighter putters. I'm hitting everything on my chosen line, I could have holed more putts today if not for the overnight rain and the greens running a little slower, I left 3 putts short in the jaws. Let's see how long the confidence lasts.
My mate shot a gross 67 which was nuts in the wind. Bogey free, think his longest par putt all day was 2 foot and he hit 16/18 greens and the two he missed he was on the fringe and putting. He made golf look easy today and I'd expect a decent cut since his differential is -5.6.
Crazyface
Tour Winner
Played Fleetwood today in a gale. How much only a gale? Well 493 par 5. Driver, nine iron to the flag at the back on a big green. 9 iron was estimated, using sat watches, at 195 yards! Very tough day . Thick rough. Greens like glass. We loved it. Great laugh. St Anne's old links tomorrow. Wind forecast is 25 mph.
Arthur Wedge
Well-known member
Was our annual inter club swindle comp today
Solid 1 over par front 9 with a double on 2 and a birdie on 6
Back 9 was a case of shaving the edges until one dropped on 14 and 17 to finish 1 under 37 points
Our swindle also won the comp
Solid 1 over par front 9 with a double on 2 and a birdie on 6
Back 9 was a case of shaving the edges until one dropped on 14 and 17 to finish 1 under 37 points
Our swindle also won the comp
My son was up this weekend so we picked to play Tyneside GC. Good course.
Unfortunately for us we were stuck behind a golf society so pace of play was pretty glacial. To be fair to the group in front of us they offered to let us through but it was 4 balls all bunched up so we thanked them and sucked it up.
As @Springveldt pointed out earlier, it was windy up here today and that had quite an impact. Front 9 in particular we took quite a buffeting. Throw in the odd sharp shower and it was certainly challenging at times. The wind definitely impacted my golf, I let it impact is probably a better description
. Particularly on putts where I started to push with my hands, muppet.
We played a stableford match, I was 4 points behind after 9, had a big 3 point swing on the 15th, levelled on 16. He went 1 ahead on 17, both played the hole well. 18, I hit my best tee shot of the day, left myself 150 in, middle of the fairway. The line is short, right edge of the green. I completely overcompensated, alignment all wrong, hit it 20yds right into a bush
. Scrambled out, matched his score, I lost by a point. Tea was on me 
Lovely afternoon of golf / time with my son.
Unfortunately for us we were stuck behind a golf society so pace of play was pretty glacial. To be fair to the group in front of us they offered to let us through but it was 4 balls all bunched up so we thanked them and sucked it up.
As @Springveldt pointed out earlier, it was windy up here today and that had quite an impact. Front 9 in particular we took quite a buffeting. Throw in the odd sharp shower and it was certainly challenging at times. The wind definitely impacted my golf, I let it impact is probably a better description
. Particularly on putts where I started to push with my hands, muppet.We played a stableford match, I was 4 points behind after 9, had a big 3 point swing on the 15th, levelled on 16. He went 1 ahead on 17, both played the hole well. 18, I hit my best tee shot of the day, left myself 150 in, middle of the fairway. The line is short, right edge of the green. I completely overcompensated, alignment all wrong, hit it 20yds right into a bush
. Scrambled out, matched his score, I lost by a point. Tea was on me Lovely afternoon of golf / time with my son.
harpo_72
Journeyman Pro
I played last night badly .. but my biggest confession is I didn’t wear golf shoes just my sketchers slip ons because of the heat .. thinking I may purchase some white ones!
D
Deleted member 21784
Guest
After the late night down the hospital the wife took the day off , I was off anyways booked to play golf and as I'll have one the twins off with me most of the week she told me to go and play whilst I could
So for the first time I played orsett golf club, number 2 in Essex
Nice course . They say it's heath land and if that's heathland then ingrebourne is definitely "inland links" as they are very different. Tones of trees for one.
Played pretty well considering. Double on first sucked but then a lovely run of bogies. Mainly because of poor putting aswell... So I was tee to green doing very well. One of the par 5s I was 10 yards short of the green in 2.. managed to overrun a bump and then overrun it back 2 putt and laugh at myself getting a bogey
The first 2 par 3s I got on in reg then 3 stabbed lol however the 3rd one was surrounded by pot bunkers.. found one. As did my mate. I got up and down for first par of my day lol
Finished 36 points after another excellent up and down from the bunker on 17
My mate and I wizzed round at our normal pace. Playing through 2 groups . Considering it was our first time playing and having to wait to be let through I thought 2 hours 50 mins was excellent time . Sometimes the speed of play sub 3 hours is our goal more than the golf lol
So for the first time I played orsett golf club, number 2 in Essex
Nice course . They say it's heath land and if that's heathland then ingrebourne is definitely "inland links" as they are very different. Tones of trees for one.
Played pretty well considering. Double on first sucked but then a lovely run of bogies. Mainly because of poor putting aswell... So I was tee to green doing very well. One of the par 5s I was 10 yards short of the green in 2.. managed to overrun a bump and then overrun it back 2 putt and laugh at myself getting a bogey
The first 2 par 3s I got on in reg then 3 stabbed lol however the 3rd one was surrounded by pot bunkers.. found one. As did my mate. I got up and down for first par of my day lol
Finished 36 points after another excellent up and down from the bunker on 17
My mate and I wizzed round at our normal pace. Playing through 2 groups . Considering it was our first time playing and having to wait to be let through I thought 2 hours 50 mins was excellent time . Sometimes the speed of play sub 3 hours is our goal more than the golf lol
Solo golf after work tonight. Fabulous 
. 11 holes, lovely.
Why do you play wonderful golf when you are on your own? No stress, no worries.
Tried a couple of things, both worked
. Closed the face on my driver, no more weak fades, I was hitting through it and they were going dead straight.
Next up, I cocked my wrists slightly on take back and then held the shape when hitting the ball. No flipping the club, I held control. Worked really well, no thinning the ball, better trajectories.
A really positive evening.
. 11 holes, lovely.Why do you play wonderful golf when you are on your own? No stress, no worries.
Tried a couple of things, both worked
. Closed the face on my driver, no more weak fades, I was hitting through it and they were going dead straight. Next up, I cocked my wrists slightly on take back and then held the shape when hitting the ball. No flipping the club, I held control. Worked really well, no thinning the ball, better trajectories.
A really positive evening.
